Daily Archives: March 11, 2014

On the antiquing trip Saturday with Donna, I purchased an old book, copyrighted 1902.

It’s true, the cover isn’t in good shape, and several of the pages are torn.

But the poem and illlustrations are so sweet, I just couldn’t resist. Oh, and the price wasn’t bad: $5.00.

I’ve been struggling with just how to post about it, because the poem is very long – too long to show here in it entirety. I’ve decided to just share a few of the illustrations and my favorite verses from the poem.

The writer is at home in his study, his wife and children in another room, and he reminisces about an old sweetheart.

As one who cons at evening o’er an album all alone,
And muses on the faces of the friends that he has known,
So I turn the leaves of fancy till, in shadowy design,
I find the smiling features of an old sweetheart of mine.

Though I hear, beneath my study, like a fluttering of wings,
The voices of my children, and the mother as she sings,
I feel no twinge of conscience to deny me any theme
When Care has cast her anchor in the harbor of a dream.

I can see the pink sunbonnetand the little, checkered dressShe wore when first I kissed herand she answered the caress.

I give my treasures to her –all, —My pencil – blue-and-red; –And, if little girls played marbles,Mine should all be hers instead! ––

When we should live together in a cozy little cotHid in a nest of roses, with a fairy garden-spot,Where the vines were ever fruited, and the weather ever fine,And the birds were ever singing for that old sweetheart of mine:

When I should be her lover forever and a day,And she my faithful sweetheart till the golden hair was gray;And we should be so happy that when either’s lips were dumbThey would not smile in Heaven till the other’s kiss had come.

But, ah! my dream is broken by a step upon the stair,And the door is softly opened, and — my wife is standing there;Yet with eagerness and rapture all my visions I resignTo greet the living presence of that old sweetheart of mine.